Crystal River current., 1887-04-30
BRIGHAM vouNa,s GUIDE.
How lie LED the Norman Chtef into
the Valley of the Great Salt Lake.

How He Led the Norman Chief into
the Valley of the Great salt Lake.
John Y. Nelson, the guide who
piloted Brigham Young to the present
site of Mormondom, told the story of
the trip as follows to reporter for
The New York World: .It was late in
the fall of 1876, think, was at Cot
tonwood Springs. Neb.. living with an
old Mexican half breed, who knew
every inch of the Rockies like book.
We were doing nothing in particular
and ready for Job when Brigham
Young came along and asked my
Mexican friend and myself to be his
guides across the Rockies, promi sing
us good pay. He had four companions.
Mormon elders. think, but l can not
remember their names. Sew en- in all,
we started with two emigrant wagons.
one of them loaded with flour, bacon,
coffee and biscuit enough for two years.
supply. don't believe Brigham had
an idea when he started Just where he
was going nor when he would get
back. 1t was sort of prospecting
trip. He and the elders called each
other brother, and the old man was a
good-natured. jolly sort of fellow. He
talked good deal of religious lingo.
but he was not the Sunday school,
pious-Jonah kind; would say damn it,
just the same as I would, and played
a good hand at euchre. was quite a
young fellow in those days. and, as the
old Mexican didn't speak much En-
glish. Brigham talked a good deal.
with me and tried to convert me to
Mormonism.
HE was about forty, we'll set up. and
with big. strong head and neck. 1
didn't take much stock in his argu-
ments defending polygamy. which 10
Smith had recently introduced MS a
revelation among the Saints. But
Brigham gave me the idea of man
who was pretty firm in his opinion
and actually believed what he preached.
1--WE didn't hurry ourselves much,
making only about twenty miles a day
with the wagons. pitching our tents
for three or four days at time when
we got into a likely region where game
was plenty. and exploring the country
for miles around. 1 don't think we
met white man all the way across.
There were lots of Indians, bnt they
didn't trouble us, just coming into
camp to trade off fresh meat or skins
for bacon and coffee. Toward Christ
mas we struck Hams fork. in western
Nebraska. after making a journey of
nearly thousand miles. There we
were showed up until the spring.
THAT was a particularly hard win
tere, and the snow was forty feet deep
in places where it had drifted over the
canyon. But we didn't suffer; provis-
ions were plenty. there were lots of
game. and when we couldn't get water
we got snow and melted it. Our camp
at Hams fork was pitched in a shelter
ed valley. and we got all the elk. ante
lope and bear we could shoot.
Late in the spring, when the snow
had melted, we struck camp and start
ed straight up the mountain about forty
miles. Right up OH top of the noun
tain we found a large lake. fed by a
living spring, chockfull of trout that
beat anything in the world. The
smallest of them was about two feet
long and weighed five or six pounds.
and the flavor" The old trapper
smacked his lips MS the recollection of
the gustatory qualification of forty
years before arose in his mind.
brigham was all the time spying
out the lay of tho land. and as he
looked from the top of the mountain
over the level stretch of desert nearly
fifty miles away he said: The prom
ised land is in sight We made our
way down the mountain without any
accident worth mentioning. and when
we struck the water now known rs Salt
Lake Brigham swallowed n mouthful
and named it the Great Salt lake. Then
we struck out about six miles to the
and Brigham Young stopped
suddenly in the middle of the valley
and shouted: This is the spot; this is
the place revealed to me by the Great
Spir long ago. Here we will build
the New Jerusalem!'
I'VE staid in the neighborhood about
six weeks. Brigham staked out the
place so that we could find it again cas-
lily and made sort of map of It. Then
we started back to Cottonwood springs,
which we reached late in the summer.
Brigham and his friends went to
ILL.,. and went off on deer
hunt with my Indian friends. Next
year Brigham took large party of
Marmons over. and Salt Lake City was
built on the very spot to which 1 guided
him."